20

Evan parked as close to the office on the dam as he could. As he got out of the car, a man in a suit and long overcoat approached him.

“Mr. Close?”

Evan nodded. He flipped up his collar against the rising fog. “Yes. Can I help you?”

The officer held up a warrant card. “DI James. I understand you own the lake and the dam?”

“Yes. I’ve already spoken at length to one of your officers and gave them permission to dive to corroborate Dr. Fitzgerald’s story.”

DI James nodded. “I thought you’d like to know that our dive confirmed the presence of explosives. It might be an idea to get some engineers to check the integrity of the dam itself.”

Evan nodded. “Thank you. I’ll arrange for one of my diving teams to come in at first light. I’m in charge of the company who has the contract for care of the dam. Assuming you don’t mind me doing that? I appreciate it’s a crime scene.”

“That’s fine. What’s the name of your company?”

“Xenon—our contracts include the Thames Barrier. The man you really need to speak to about the dive is Varian Sparrow. He’s ultimately responsible for anything archaeological that happens here.”

“I’ll do that. Good night.”

“Good night.” Evan spun and headed inside. Varian and Jasper paused what was evidently a heated argument. “Is this really a good idea?” Evan asked, skipping the niceties of hello.

Jasper rolled his eyes and headed to the door. “I’ll leave you blokes to it. I have work to do.”

“The explosives need setting, and I have to oversee it,” Varian said, his voice about as testy as Evan had ever heard it.

“That is not what I meant, and you know it. The police are investigating AJ’s death. This is a crime scene, or had the tape and officers out there escaped your notice?”

“He was on the lake, not in it. And that church is dangerous.”

“That church is in the lake! Therefore part of said crime scene. Another few days won’t make much difference. Besides, they’d been diving earlier this morning. Lou says—”

Varian cut him off. “Lou says what?” His eyes narrowed and his posture stiffened.

“She says the village was in ruins down there. Only the church and one other building remained intact. And that one was wired to explode. Meaning that those houses down there were intentionally destroyed.”

Varian remained straight faced. Either this wasn’t news to him, or he was a better actor than Evan gave him credit for. “She does, does she?” His voice was cold, his words deliberate. “Does she have proof?”

Evan hesitated. For some reason he couldn’t fathom, telling Varian the truth would be inherently dangerous for Lou. In a split second, he decided to deliberately keep his comments vague. “How would I know? I’m not exactly her confidant or work colleague. If she has, I imagine she’d have handed it to the police by now. The point is, she’s planning on diving again at first light. Any more blasting down there, and she’ll know something is going on.”

“I ended the dive. She knows that. If she dives, it’ll be against a direct order. Not to mention breaking a police cordon.”

“She doesn’t care,” Evan shot back. He wasn’t going to mention he’d got permission for his own team to dive. “You told her to do a job, and she’ll keep going until she’s completed it.”

“She can’t dive alone. I’ll bring someone in to assist. Someone I can trust.” Varian slid his hands into his pockets.

Someone who will write the report the way you want it, more like. Evan had more sense than to voice the thought. “You should have left things alone. They were just fine until you decided to interfere and dig up the past. I was arranging for extra water to be diverted here. The church would have been covered again by the end of next week. Now you’ve stirred up a hornets’ nest.”

“You need to make sure your great-grandfather’s records don’t contain anything they shouldn’t. And keep your girlfriend on a tight leash.”

“My what?” he spluttered. “I’ll have you know there is nothing going on between Dr. Fitzgerald and myself.”

Varian scoffed. “And yet you knew exactly to whom I was referring.”

The door flung open. “Evan, I need a word.” Jasper’s pale face, along with the edge in his voice, set all Evan’s nerves ablaze with concern.

“Sure. What’s up?” Evan gave Jasper his full attention, grateful for the distraction.

Jasper looked from Evan to Varian and back. “We got problems. Big problems.”

“That doesn’t sound good.” Varian peered at him.

“It isn’t.” Jasper gave Varian a sideways glance, before dumping the plans he carried on the table. “If you’ll excuse us, this is dam business.”

Varian jerked his head. “That’s my cue to leave. I need to brief my team. We’ll be back in the morning to lay the charges. Tell Lou she’ll have a new partner at lunchtime and to stay out of the lake until then.”

“Tell her yourself,” Evan sighed. “I’m not on your payroll. And you’ll need permission from the police before you enter that lake.” He waited until Varian had gone before turning his full attention to Jasper. “What’s up?”

Jasper kept his voice low. “I don’t suppose he’s out there listening, but just in case…” He spread the blueprint over the desk. “This is the diagram for the internal walls of the dam. We have an integrity issue. Those explosions in the lake last night caused damage here and here.” His finger stabbed the papers as he spoke.

“Can you repair it?”

“We can patch and reinforce the inside. The problem is, we don’t know what damage was done on the outer walls. We’ll have to drain the lake by six to eight feet to ease the pressure on the entire dam. If we don’t, then the whole dam could fail.”

Evan’s heart pounded and his mouth dried. “When?”

Jasper shrugged. “You tell me. You’re in charge of the contract for the dam’s upkeep.”

“You’re the engineer onsite. I mean it, when? Are you talking next week, or in the next few hours? Or are you simply scaremongering? If she does fail, what damage is there likely to be?”

“Total.”

Evan’s whole body went cold, and he shivered. “I’m sorry?”

“If the dam goes, it will flood the entire valley. The village, manor, school, everything will go. Any loose debris down there will go with it. People will die. And if I find out who ordered the blasting down there—” Jasper let the threat hang.

“He isn’t too far away,” Evan muttered. “He wants to bring the church down.”

“And I’ve told him no, not that he’s listening.”

Evan tapped the plans. “Did the explosions in the lake cause this?”

“Possibly, but I suspect it was caused deliberately. At least the internal damage. I was going to ask Dr. Fitzgerald to dive down and check the outside walls but didn’t like to after all that happened today. I would send my usual diver, but he’s vanished. He’s not at home, and he isn’t answering his phone. I’ve reported him missing. They’re saying another body was found down there…a recent one.”

“Talk to the police about that. I’ve already got permission to dive to check the dam. I know Dr. Fitzgerald was planning on diving first thing anyway, so I’ll go with her—find out what we’re facing. I’ll call head office when I get home and get the team on standby. I can have the whole shooting match here in a matter of hours.”

Jasper jerked his head. “Thanks. Tell Varian not to blast anything until the dam’s been checked completely.”

“Sure. When are you opening the overspill gates?”

“In around ten minutes, to coincide with the tide. A controlled release won’t cause any flooding downstream. You’ll need to sign off on it.”

Evan held out his hand for the paperwork and scrawled his signature on the bottom. “There you go. If the dam does go, how much warning will we get?”

Jasper shrugged. “Depends what we find down there. I just pray she’ll last until morning.”

“You and me both.”

“Thanks, boss. I’m testing the dam alarm system at ten, but I’ll put a warning out before then.”

Evan nodded. “Keep me posted. G’night.”

He headed outside and back to the car. “Home.” He looked at Ira. “There are several calls I need to make.” He paused. “It might be an idea to call your mum as well. Suggest she go to her sister’s in London for a few days. And that she leaves tonight.”

Ira frowned. “Why?”

“We have problems with the dam. If it fails, there might not be much warning.”

“I’ll call her as soon as we get back. Thank you.”

Evan climbed into the front of the car. “Welcome.” He did up his seatbelt and tugged out his phone, hitting the message screen, followed by Ralph’s name. Ralph was his second in command at Xenon and the one man he trusted the most, other than Ira. “Ralph, it’s Evan. Get the whole team on standby to go to Dark Lake. Possibly big problems at the Aberfinay Dam.”